Boys’ tennis traveled to Loomis for a Wednesday afternoon Class A matchup. Loomis is always a solid team (and they made the tournament last year), so we looked forward to a competitive match.
Things got off to a great start, as Alfi and Gideon, serving well and displaying much-improved volleys, pounced on their opponents to the tune of an 8-4 win. Scott and Darren broke in the last game to take their doubles 8-6, and all eyes turned to Matthew and Carl, who were just starting a tiebreak on the first court. Momentum swung their way when it mattered most, and we were off to the races with our first doubles sweep of the year.
Carl blasted through Agadi in a quick first set, but Loomis’ captain had no intention of going down quietly. He settled in and Carl came back to earth, but a tight set ended in Deerfield’s favor. 2-0.
Scott, battling the steady Katz, played looser and more aggressively in the second, enabling him to take control with an early break and cruise to victory. 3-0 – but then things started to get interesting.
Darren faced off against the fiery Xavier on court 3, where the first set went by faster than we’d care to admit. The second set was a seesaw affair which Darren narrowly lost in a tiebreaker. 3-1.
Gideon, having been thoroughly worked over by Chang in his first set, resorted to the lowest common denominator – loopy slices and dinks – and he managed to unsettle his heretofore unflappable foe. Due to time constraints, they played a super-breaker for the third set, which ended up taking longer than some of the full sets we played. Although Gideon held match points, Chang held on for a 15-13 win. 3-2 – with Matthew starting a superbreaker of his own.
Matthew struggled with significant back pain all day, making quick work of Shrestha in the first but going down equally quickly in the second. Luckily for us, he displayed a great deal of heart in taking his super 10-8, thereby clinching the match.
Alfi finished things up with a solid win at #5, which set the final score at 5-2. A successful day all around, and an even record of 2-2 before a big matchup at Andover on Saturday.
Deerfield 5, Loomis 2
Carl Grant/Matthew Wuyan (D) d. Samir Agadi/Amir Katz (L) 9-8 (3)
Scott Danforth/Darren Ho (D) d. Alex Chang/Kevin Xavier (L) 8-6
Alfi Auersperg/Gideon Yektai (D) d. Ramesh Shrestha/Nait Jaitrong (L) 8-4
Grant (D) d. Agadi (L) 6-4, 6-2
Danforth (D) d. Katz (L) 7-5, 6-2
Xavier (L) d. Ho (D) 6-1, 7-6
Wuyan (D) d. Shrestha (L) 6-2, 2-6, 10-8
Auersperg (D) d. Jaitrong (L) 6-4, 6-4
Chang (L) d. Yektai (D) 6-2, 4-6, 15-13